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Traditional process of choosing favorite teams probably better suited

Richard Briggs Current-Argus Sports EditorThank you to all those who responded and voted for your favorite professional sports teams. There weren't as many votes as I would have liked, but I appreciate all those who did respond.

Posted:
05/29/2012 05:11:47 PM MDT

Thank you to all those who responded and voted for your favorite professional sports teams. There weren't as many votes as I would have liked, but I appreciate all those who did respond.

In Carlsbad we have a pretty good mix from the small sample of people who voted. There's love for the Boston Red Sox, Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Reds in Carlsbad. Also, there's a family of Dallas Cowboys lovers here as well.

New Mexico is a place where there isn't a state pro sports team to support, so I was interested to see how diverse the list was going to be. Back home it was easy: If it was basketball season, then everyone supported the Utah Jazz. But I imagine it's a little different here.

Back at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, I had this friend who was on the school newspaper with me, McKoye. She had the belief that if you live in the state where there was pro sports team, then you were obligated to support that team. I completely disagreed with her on this topic, but I may be changing my tune.

I have to hand it to her; she is the biggest Jazz fan I've ever met in my life. She watches every game on TV and tries to go to at least a handful of games each year. And she doesn't buy the cheap seats on StubHub like I do. No, she always buys lower bowl seats and makes a sign to hold up each time she journeys to Energy Solutions Arena.

As I was sitting here thinking about favorite professional sports teams, I realized that I was inconsistent when selecting my favorite teams as a kid.

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Living in Utah the Jazz were not my favorite team. My family moved to Utah when I was 10, but I didn't stop supporting the Los Angeles Lakers. They were the team I grew up with. They were the team that I would sneak out of bed to watch on TV because they were on past my bedtime.

Selecting my favorite baseball team was a completely different process.

As most of you know by now I am a fan of the Chicago Cubs. At age 5 my parents took me and my brothers to see "Rookie of the Year," the baseball movie about the kid who breaks his arm and then can throw more than 100 mph. The kid then goes to play for the Cubs. As a little kid I loved the movie and remembered it.

When I first started watching sports at age 7, I had the Cubs at the back of my mind. My parents introduced me to WGN and its national broadcasts of Cubs baseball. Here I was as a little kid in central California, and I became a Cubs fan. The Los Angeles Dodgers were right in my backyard, and they were televised on the same channel as the Lakers. But I didn't choose the Dodgers.

I was so sporadic in picking my teams. The Carolina Panthers are my favorite NFL team for the small fact that their first year of existence was the same year I started watching sports. I picked them for that reason alone well and the black and turquoise color scheme was kind of cool.

I now see how bad it would be for pro sports if every sports fan was exactly like me. Pro teams need a strong local fan base. The Utah Jazz need local fans, and if Albuquerque ever got an NBA team, then it would need strong local fans.